Defense Plan for the Nansei Islands Leaves Residents Behind: Learn From the Reality of the Battlefield 80 Years Ago

Mainichi Shimbun

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In light of the increasingly tense international situation, the defense capabilities of the Nansei Islands are being strengthened. But are the government's plans based on the perspective of the local residents? Naha branch reporter Higa Hiroshi (a native of Chatan Town, Okinawa), who has read testimonies from the Battle of Okinawa, in which it is said one in four Okinawans died, said he believes that in order to prioritize the "lives of the loca…

沖縄タイムス＋プラス

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The former villages of Mabuni, Makabe, and Kiyan became hellish battlefields that engulfed local residents. Itoman City, located at the southern tip of Okinawa Island, was divided into Itoman Town and the five villages of Kanegusuku, Takamine, Makabe, Mabuni, and Kiyan during the Okinawa War. When the Japanese 32nd Army withdrew from Shuri to the south at the end of May 1945, approximately 100,000 civilians and 30,000 Japanese soldiers flooded i…